Russian Federation President Vladimir V. Putin delivered a speech at the Forty-third Munich Conference on Secuirty Policy that denounced American imperialism. Its grace, its courage, its comprehensive and brilliant summary of the destabilising impact of U.S. foreign policy on international peace and security has reached an oratorical level rarely achieved by statespersons today. I urge the visitors to the blog to read the entire speech. You may disagree with it and even resent it but you will be better informed as a result of it.

Flag of the Russian Federation

It is particularly inspirational when he questions whether the U.S. will abide by the May 2002, Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty to reduce strategic weapons–I.C.B.M.s, S.L.B.M.s–to 1700-2000 nuclear warheads by 31 December 2012. He questions whether this agreement, which did not include an inspections regime, would be manipulated by the U.S. to cheat and conceal long-range nuclear systems. The treaty, S.O.R.T., did not even mandate destruction of reentry vehicles but merely their separation from delivery systems. So I wonder if indeed a nation could merely deactivate the warheads and even legally keep them in a warehouse, or a bunker or some other site. Yet Mr Putin’s skepticism of the American willingness to abide by this agreement is consistent with global concerns that a nation that launches an illegal war on massive lies and deception, and that unilaterally abrogates the A.B.M. treaty, can be trusted to implement legally binding agreements that even modestly restrict unilateralism and hyperpower ruthless autonomy:

“We hope that our partners will also act in a transparent way and will refrain from laying aside a couple of hundred superfluous nuclear warheads for a rainy day. And if today the new American Defence Minister declares that the United States will not hide these superfluous weapons in warehouse or, as one might say, under a pillow or under the blanket, then I suggest that we all rise and greet this declaration standing. It would be a very important declaration.”

The great Russian leader excoriates U.S. unilateralism to utterly destroy any balance of power system and to erect a unipolar, American Empire with war, racism and shock and awe war crimes. These are the anti-Iraq war leader’s utterances:

“I consider that the unipolar model is not only unacceptable but also impossible in todayâ€™s world. And this is not only because if there was individual leadership in todayâ€™s â€“ and precisely in todayâ€™s â€“ world, then the military, political and economic resources would not suffice. What is even more important is that the model itself is flawed because at its basis there is and can be no moral foundations for modern civilisation.

“Along with this, what is happening in todayâ€™s world â€“ and we just started to discuss this â€“ is a tentative to introduce precisely this concept into international affairs, the concept of a unipolar world.

“And with which results?

“Unilateral and frequently illegitimate actions have not resolved any problems. Moreover, they have caused new human tragedies and created new centres of tension. Judge for yourselves: wars as well as local and regional conflicts have not diminished. Mr Teltschik [organizer of the conference was Horst Teltschik] mentioned this very gently. And no less people perish in these conflicts â€“ even more are dying than before. Significantly more, significantly more!…”